Lists
2011-03-21 || 2:37 p.m.

Its been a long time but I have really missed diaryland. There is a kind of fluffy etiquette attached to facebook that dictates no long musings but diaryland � well diaryland can be your long musings best friend.

So I didn't think there was very much, if anything at all, that Bex didn't know about me. But somehow the other day we were having a conversation about things she had been telling Sam about her past and our holiday to Ireland in the 90's came up. We were talking about this Dublin city walk we had done and the various people we had met and talked to during our two week holiday. I told Bex that after the walk we were sitting in a pub with the guy who had guided us around the city and for some reason I was playing about with a list of my top ten albums at the time that I was carrying around with me. Why I was carrying it around with me, indeed why I even wrote it, I have no idea. But there I was fiddling about with it when the walk guy asked if he could see it. I duly passed it over and he commented on it and said it was cool, good etc and then asked if I was a rock journalist! To which I had to reply no I am just someone sad who likes making lists for no good reason. Bex loved the story and well, I don't have the list anymore but I can pretty much remember what might have been on it so I was thinking what would I put on a list today. Because I am still a silly geek that likes making lists. So here goes:

In no particular order apart from the first one which is definitely my all time favourite.

1.Lifted � Bright Eyes

The summer of 2002. Actually I was already on diaryland so maybe I wrote an entry that day, who knows. From kind of a year or two earlier from when Bex was 12/13 she had been listening to the radio late at night in bed which meant she got to hear lots of new music that I was not aware of. I'm really not a radio listener at all, I don't know why. Probably its because I'm not very aurally aware. I'm a far more visual person. But during this radio listening Bex heard 'The calendar hung itself' . She played it to me sometime in early 2002 and I just thought it was amazing. So she downloaded as much Bright Eyes as she could find and we bought all the already available CD's. Which meant we were really looking forward to Lifted coming out in August 2002. We were already visiting a friend of mine that morning so we didn't get to go to Bluewater until lunchtime. I can't remember where we bought it � HMV or Virgin I guess � but we bought two copies immediately. I was already aware that I was going to be playing it over and over and it would pretty soon get trashed. A few days later we went camping and every night I would lay in my sleeping bag just listening to lifted until I fell asleep. Things were pretty bad in other areas of my life at that time. But this was just beautiful.

2.Up the Bracket � The Libertines

I love the Libertines. They just make me think of what Dartford would be like if it were a piece of ymusic. They're kind of trashy, they swear a lot, They're dirty, drunk, stoned but they speak to your heart. They are life. With all the good bits and all the bad bits too.

3.Pinkerton � Weezer

This just makes me think of my poor little mad dog Dylan. I would play this a lot in the winter of 2002/03. I spent a lot of time walking Dylan. I would get in from work and walk for an hour or so all over the Temple Hill estate. Right down to the Thames and the Dartford Crossing with Weezer playing in the background. I don't know why but I just find it easier to see beauty in dirt and trash.

4.Different Class � Pulp

I don't really have any mad memories attached to this. I just think its a good album and it is the first one so far that was also on my original 1997 list.

5.Thunder and Consolation � New Model Army

Now this wasn't on my original list, I'm pretty sure and I don't know why. I love this album. It came out just a couple of months after I had Bex in early 1989. I was so young and everything was so fun then. I had such hope you know. I was well back in shape quickly, I had the cutest little baby to push around and great music to listen to and I was happy. Really fucking happy. Like happy like I've never really been since. New Model Army were the first gig I went to after having Bex. I think it was February/March 1989. I cannot believe I went to a gig that soon after having a baby! With Beanie I didn't go to a gig until over two years after I had her and that was only into Leamington not all the way up to London! In fact I only just went to a gig in London this February. That's age for you!

6.Automatic for the People � R.E.M

Again, no mad memories attached to this but its just a brilliant album. I absolutely love 'Find the River' and 'Nightswimming'. I find REM very evocative. They make me feel like I live in a wooden house somewhere in the woods in the middle of nowhere in a state in America. I never have lived anywhere like this but I find that they make me feel like I have memories attached to screen doors and unusual insects and plants. This was on my original list.

7.Electric Warrior � T.Rex

Well I never heard this when it came out being just a baby but my dad had T.Rex singles and when I got older I would play them on my little red Chad Valley record player. Once when I was very small I remember remarking to myself that when I grew up I was going to marry a man just like Marc Bolan.

8.1977 � Ash

I really like this album. This was released at quite a difficult time of my life and I played it a great deal because music is one of the only things that gets me through difficulties. That and day dreaming. Another from the original list.

9.The Colourfield � The Colourfield

I had this on vinyl and cassette. Long after my record player had passed into obscurity I would play the cassette. It was never available on CD you see. Well, I think it had been once, briefly, but everytime I looked on Amazon or Ebay, it was horrifically expensive, like �50 or more. And then we were burgled three times when we moved to leamington and my cassette was gone. I managed to get a few tracks on Spotify but it became just a memory. And then last year, for some reason, it was re-released on CD. Yay! An old album and one that was not on my original list and I don't know why.

10.The Aeroplane over the Sea � Neutral Milk Hotel.

I have to have this one on here, its Bex's favourite and I love Bex.

So what else might have made the list and what did I have on the original list? Well I definitely had Nevermind Nirvana on the original list and Tapestry by Carole King. I'm pretty sure I would have had Parallel Lines by Blondie on there and I definitely hand Hunky Dory by David Bowie. The Jam are one of my all time favourite bands but they never did that perfect album. I loved parts of the gift � like Happy Together Now, Ghost and Carnation are three of my absolute favourites but then there are other tracks on the Gift that I would never play. I'm kind of having to rush now because I am trying to make my lunch too but also love Ghost Nation by Hunters and Collectors. 1990 was a lovely year. Really up until Barry got sick and died in 1992 things were just lovely. And I really thought my life was going to be the life I had always dreamt of for myself when I was that sad, dreamy, lonely little girl.